


I Guess I'll Just Lie Here.

by SoonerOrLater



Series: I Guess I'll Just Lie Here [1]
Category: Schitt's Creek
Genre: Anxiety, Developing Reltionship, Fluff, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, UST
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-19
Updated: 2020-08-19
Packaged: 2021-03-06 02:47:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,424
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25996243
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SoonerOrLater/pseuds/SoonerOrLater
Summary: David is feeling overwhelmed by life as they set up the store. So he lies down on the floor. Patrick comes back and joins him, and they each confess to a little insecurity...and lie a little too close on the floor.Set mid-series three.
Relationships: Patrick Brewer/David Rose
Series: I Guess I'll Just Lie Here [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1886797
Comments: 12
Kudos: 140





	I Guess I'll Just Lie Here.

It was just a lot. Everything. The store. Life. And the final straw had been when one of the body milk bottles had slipped, cracked and spilled all over the floor. 

David had got midway through mopping it up and felt his chest start to tighten. He was crying. For no good reason, but for every good reason. He threw the mop to one side and ran to the back room. He leaned heavily against the wall for a second before sliding down onto the floor. It was a lot cooler down there. He could breathe a bit easier. Things were swimming into focus a bit more now. He still had some time before Patrick was back- he was over at Ray’s sorting out some paperwork, which always took longer than it needed to. 

He could just lay on the floor for a bit. Just a bit to get his focus back. To stop his mind from swimming too much. Then he could get back up, mop up the milk and be on with his day. 

He lay on the cool, if slightly dirty floor. He felt the cool of the stone floor seeping through his sweater. He felt the hardness against his head and breathed out. He’d just lay here a while. 

It was everything and nothing. It was Alexis being a know it all even though deep down she was trying to help. It was her trying to be part of it when it was his. It was his Mom thinking he couldn’t do it. His Dad trying to give him advice at every turn. It was the town waiting for one of the Roses to really fail. It was Patrick who seemed to have blind- if somewhat arrogant- faith in it all...it was a lot. 

So he was laying on the floor for a bit. 

A bit turned into a bit longer as his brain whirred on every bad decision that had led him to here, and everything he’d managed to get wrong all at once. It was every weird look he’d got, every hurtful remark. But as long as he was laying on the floor it was kind of ok. He could kind of cope. 

Except time got away from him. He heard the door unlock and Patrick come back in. 

‘David?’ He could visualise him looking confused. Seeing the literal spilled milk. Panicking ‘DAVID?’ 

Somehow he couldn’t quite move, still. 

‘DAVID?’ 

He heard Patrick’s footsteps. 

‘DAVID?’ a slightly panicked note in his voice. David realised he was sprawled out on the floor with a smashed bottle at the other end of the store. He groaned and covered his face in his hands. 

‘I’m fine.’ he said. Not moving, not attempting to get up. Just lying. 

Patrick stopped dead in his tracks. David did indeed seem fine. He folded his arms and regarded the strange sight of David sprawled out on the floor, hands currently covering his face and frowned at it. ‘So um, any time you want to explain?’

‘I spilled the milk.’ David said. ‘Well it ...fell on me. And I was cleaning it up and I felt a bit...overwhelmed’

‘Well given your general stance on sweeping and cleaning in general I could see how that might happen’ Patrick said leaning against the doorframe. ‘So you got tired and lay on the floor?’

David exhaled. Patrick was going to think he was ridiculous. He did think he was ridiculous. He was going to think he was ridiculous and walk away from him and the store, and then David was going to be alone, and really make a mess of it and everyone would be right. He tried to concentrate on the floor underneath him. The cool stone. The hard ground. But he was spiralling. 

Patrick could see the cogs turning in David’s brain at 100 miles per hour even though he wasn’t saying anything. He wasn’t doing anything in fact just staring his eyes lifted up in his head. He looked like he was trying not to hyperventilate. He frowned. ‘David?’ 

‘You think I’m ridiculous’ he might as well say it. 

‘Well that’s sort of a given anyway David.’ Patrick said. ‘But in relation to this specific moment maybe more so than usual.’ he was trying to diffuse the tension but he immediately regretted it. David looked wounded. And also like, even though he was lying on the floor, he might bolt at any moment. Patrick knew he was...highly strung, to say the least, but he was starting to see the cracks in that. 

David pulled his hands down. And looked at the ceiling. He was at a low now. And he didn’t know why but he suddenly felt he could...talk to Patrick. Nothing so far in the overconfidence, the continual mocking had made Patrick out to be a confidant, in the way Alexis had ever been but...there was a kindness to Patrick. David breathed out. He also might as well know the true extent of what he was dealing with. It was that or run out of the store for good at this point. He exhaled. 

Patrick saw David thinking again. He’d been about to say something but instead he waited. Giving him space. 

‘I got overwhelmed.’ He said, ‘This’ he gestured around, which was admittedly a bit comical given he was lying on the floor, but Patrick didn’t have to smirk quite so much. ‘And when I get overwhelmed I...lie on the floor.’

‘Ok.’ Patrick said with a shrug. 

David finally turned his head to properly look at him. ‘Ok?’ he said, narrowing his eyes. 

‘Sure’ Patrick said with a shrug. And pushed himself off the wall, he took one step towards David, and another over him. There was only one thing for it at this point. 

‘What are- I mean what are you.’

Patrick lowered himself to the floor next to David. The stone cool through his shirt. He kept his feet on the floor, knees bent. He closed his eyes for a second. ‘This is quite nice.’ He said. 

‘What are you doing?!’ David was indignant beside him. What on earth was Patrick doing? Making fun of him? 

Patrick could feel his eyes on him, but he didn’t open his eyes. Sometimes approaching David was best done like approaching a frightened animal- on his level, and slowly. ‘You’re lying on the floor.’ he shrugged ‘I’m joining you.’ 

‘But why?!’ David was completely puzzled and even more flustered at this turn of events. 

‘Call it a corporate bonding exercise’ Patrick said, reaching a hand over that he meant to tap on David’s arm reassuringly. He however totally misjudged both his position on the floor and their respective heights and his hand landed firmly palm down on David’s thigh. Before it registered, he’d given it the hard squeeze he’d meant to be slightly butch and reassuring on David’s arm. Instead it was...something else. ‘Um. I’m. I mean’

‘It’s fine. Fine’

‘I was aiming for your’

‘Yeah of course.’ 

Patrick took his arm back and folded his arms carefully over his stomach so not to get himself in more trouble. He could feel the heat rising in his cheeks and he hoped David hadn’t noticed. He felt a familiar knot in his stomach and he exhaled. The cool of the floor was helping actually. He closed his eyes. 

David flicked his eyes over as Patrick exhaled. He could swear there was a slight flush to his usually pale cheeks. Don’t be stupid he told himself. It’s nothing. Even if he is, your business partner accidentally groped you. Anyone would be embarrassed. It’s nothing. 

‘You know David you could be onto something here.’ Patrick said, eager to talk about something, anything rather than try and quiet the thoughts in his head. 

‘You can make fun of me, it's fine. I know it’s stupid. I’m stupid. 

‘I’m not-David.’ Patrick exhaled. Some things might be easier to say laying on the floor, ‘I tease you, but you know you’re not stupid right?’

David’s silence spoke volumes. Oh. Patrick thought. Right. Suddenly an approach occurred to him. Weirdly what worked for himself, to calm him in times of stress, might just work on David too. It was worth a try anyway. He folded his arms back safely across his stomach and started to speak.

‘So.’ Patrick continued, ‘What we need to do is to go through all the current stock and form a robust inventory system. That will see us through the first few months of opening. Then after that, we should be in a position to look at a new range of suppliers based on our highest turnovers and seasonal stock. I’m thinking we look at a revolving seasonal selection of say 20% of our inventory. But you’ll have creative control obviously. In the next week or so we should start looking at our launch strategy, whether we want events, discounts, that sort of thing. The business loans are keeping us stable in terms of overheads and staffing costs for the first year as long as we don’t make any kind of huge losses or incur any unexpected expenses. We’re still waiting on security cameras, and eventually we should consider bigger renovations but let’s wait out the first six months to a year first. For an inventory system i’m thinking-’ his voice had got faster as he went and he realised he sounded almost nervous. Maybe he was, for all his confidence in his business sense sometimes even he doubted himself. 

‘What are you doing?’ David asked confused. 

‘I thought we’d talk through some of the plans. You know get it all out in the open out of our heads- or in my case, spreadsheets.’

‘Oh.’ David said. Confused. Patrick was talking him through the stuff he already knew, out loud as if to reassure himself. Oh. Ok. ‘You’ve got it all figured out.’ David said ‘Just as long as people from around here can be convinced that skincare is a must. Or that they want luxury knitwear or organic food or.’ he groaned a little ‘They can right? I mean people do want that kind of stuff. I mean people are making it so surely people want it. I want it. But I appreciate I’m not people I’m ...me. But I think they do? People like wine and cheese right. We can at least sell that.’ 

They both exhaled. And lay on the floor in silence. 

‘This is going to work right Patrick?’ David asked. 

‘Yeah. It’s going to work.’ Patrick said hoping he sounded sure of himself. 

‘Have you...um...done it often?’ David asked. 

‘What?’ Patrick frowned at the ceiling. 

‘This sorta running a business thing.’

Patrick screwed up his face really hoping David didn’t look his way. ‘This is my, uh, first time’ he said with a wince. 

‘Oh.’ David said. ‘It’s not mine. I mean I’ve done loads of...well galleries but that’s still businesses but…’

‘What?’ Patrick asked the ceiling. 

‘This feels different.’

Patrick smiled. ‘It does, doesn't it?’ he cleared his throat ‘It um, well feels like we might, um have something right?’

He heard David exhale. ‘Yeah.’ he said. ‘Yeah…’ he felt the creeping knot in his chest again. ‘But it’s a lot.’

He felt Patrick nod to his left. ‘Why don’t we just lie here for a while first.’

‘That sounds like a good plan.’ 

For a few moments they did. David’s head was starting to quiet with Patrick’s reassuring presence next to him. He somehow did that. Even when he was winding him up over some stupid thing the very presence of him was reassuring. That under all that confidence he was- even if so slightly- worried too, made David feel like less of a freak. That he was willing to lie on the floor with him too...was something new. 

Patrick stared at the ceiling. He couldn’t believe he’d confessed that basically he had no idea what he was doing. Sure he had a business degree. And he’d worked in a few offices, and Ray had given him a lot of extra responsibility. He’d even done retail- after Rose Video- and been an assistant manager. In theory he knew what he was doing...in practice, that was a whole other thing. And he’d taken David along with him. No pressure then. He let out a breath and decided to just let the cool floor and the white ceiling calm him for a second. 

Patrick let his arms drop to his sides, wanting to feel the full weight of the floor under him. Again he’d misjudged the space between him and David, or David had moved without him knowing and he found his hand brushing David’s as it came down. When it rested on the floor he could feel David’s hand there, even though they weren’t touching. 

Patrick’s chest tightened in panic, and in a thrill of something else. He couldn’t move, he couldn’t just jerk his hand back, what would David think. What did that say about him even. He could feel a frisson of something, couldn’t he? Or was it just something like wishful thinking. He forced himself to breathe. 

David felt the light touch of Patrick’s hand- just the top of it, graze his hand as Patrick flopped it down. He inhaled sharply, not expecting the touch. Had he meant to do that? Surely not. Patrick was the straightest man ever- not that that had ever stopped David. But straightest in every sense of the world. Patrick didn’t move though. He didn’t pull back. David felt a bolt of something in his chest. No. He told himself. Don’t be ridiculous. But surely there was something there. He could feel it, couldn’t he? Between them, lying there on the floor neither moving away. He closed his eyes and forced himself to breathe. 

After long seconds Patrick closed his eyes and moved his hand away. 

‘We should do some work.’ He said. ‘At the very least clean up that mess.’

‘Two more minutes?’ David asked, batting his eyes at Patrick who was looking over at him. Ridiculously close as it turned out, lying next to him on the floor. 

Patrick smiled a wide genuine smile. This was what working with David was always going to be. He laughed. ‘Two more minutes.’ he settled back. ‘But you’re doing the mopping.’ 

Patrick knew as he said it, he would be the one mopping. But it was worth it to lie there two minutes more.

**Author's Note:**

> Title from Noah Reid's song but not really based on it...it just ended up stuck in my head as I finished it. 
> 
> Part of a series of moments where they end up...just lying there.


End file.
